Impressions ...and few general questions

[TB2]

Hello folks,

my BX is running fine, seems like I did everything right in the end as I changed the belts, waterpump, fluids and filters...

I love this car!

Did my first trip now from Switzerland over France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to Germany and tomorrow I'll head back to Switzerland. Done around 2000km so far and had no problems whatsoever. Hydraulics working well - once I had to drive a bit of very bumpy gravel road and that worked out fine.

The engine is amazing! I can't believe how much drag it provides while still being so economic. Even at 120km/h it still drags well. On a German highway I once did 160km/h (then it started raining) and it still felt comfortable to drive. I fueled up three times, and everytime I had a consumption of 5.3l Diesel with mixed driving including a lot of city and hispeed driving. (That makes 53mpg if I and various calculators aren't mistaken )

Anyways, as I don't know this car, some things seem odd to me, that's why I have a few basic questions:

1. Everytime the car stood for more then a couple of hours the brakes are squeaking for the first 2-3 brakings. After that, the noise is gone. At first I thought it might just be a little rust on the brake pads from staying outside over night but it really happens everytime even if it only stood for a few hours. What could be causing this? Should I change the brake pads soon?

2. How do these cars normaly rise and fall? If I go from low to high to low with my BX, usually the rear rises first and also drops first. Sometimes the front drops first, and sometimes both sides drop at the same time, but most of the time the rear goes first, especially when rising. How should it behave?

3. What the heck is the upper left gauge good for? It has to do something with oil I suspect but I can't figure it out. It has an oil can symbol and when the ignition key is turned to enable the electrics a white bar with a red end to the left lights up behind the needle. When the engine is turned on, the needle goes all to the left and the bar behind it goes off. It stays like this all the time. In the handbook (which is French) it says something about the needle needing to be "between the two red lines" or something like that. I don't get what it means. I can't post a picture of my own dash as I haven't got the camera cable with me but I found this on the net as a reference. The upper left one:



4. How can I operate the rear window wiper without using the washer? I guess I must be stupid but I can't find a button or knob to do that. I always have to press the rear window washer button to the right of the dash to make it wipe the window once. Isn't there an interval timer or something like that?

Great car anyways Hope it will stay the way it is for a while...

Regards,
Carl

[M]

1. Everytime the car stood for more then a couple of hours the brakes are squeaking for the first 2-3 brakings.

That will be the family of field mice that have made a home in the callipers.

2. How do these cars normaly rise and fall?

They rise upwards and fall towards the ground

In practice I think each one is individual, usually back end rises first, followed by front, and falling again, back end first. Yet Vera bucked that trend by rising front first.

3. What the heck is the upper left gauge good for?

At first switch on it indicates the approximate oil level - after switch on it goes to zero as once running it would not give a true indication. i think on some models it has a dual function of Oil temp display too.

Use the dipstick for accurate results.

[CitroXim]

Hi Carl, great to hear all is good on the BX front

The oil gauge is, I suspect, an oil level and oil temperature gauge. It moving hard over when the ignition is on suggests it is in its level measuring mode and then, when the engine starts, it becomes an oil temperature gauge. Oil temperature will normally remain quite low unless you really thrash it. I once had a 205GTi and the oil temperature gauge hardly ever moved more than a division and in reality, just off the end-stop. Likewise the oil temperature gauge in my Activa. It just moves off the end unless I'm really driving it very hard.

Sinking: I have a very early Xantia that has the same set-up as a BX. That one always sinks back first and rises front first. Sometimes it does the opposite.. It all depends on how it is feeling. They will tend to sink rear first as there is more leakage from the rear struts through the brake doseur valve. The front normally stays up longer despite hving more weight bearing down on it.

Squealing brakes will be your rear discs. You may find corrosion around the calipers and more likely between the caliper and the trailing arm. You may find the rear pads have worn wedge shaped if there is significant corrosion between the caliper and trailing arm. Answer is to strip the brakes, unbolt the calipers from the trailing arms and give it all a really good clean up.

[mat_fenwick]

If the gauge is exactly as pictured then it is an oil level gauge only, and only serves any purpose during the first 15 seconds. The Gti and 16v models have the dual function oil level/oil pressure gauge with a seperate oil temperature gauge. Some time ago I fitted a 16v set of gauges to my TZD Turbo as this also includes a water temperature gauge.

Not sure how much you can make out from the photo but the upper left gauge has the scale 2-4-6-8 Bar when if it is the dual purpose one.
BTW, my oil temperature gauge sits at between 80-100 degrees C in normal driving; there is a heat exchanger in the cooling system that should keep the oil temperature reasonably stable.

[TB2]

Okay thanks for clearing that up.

Never heard of a combined oil level/temperature gauge on any other car. I thought something was broken.

I guess I'll buy a few brake pads and wheel bearings off ebay anytime soon to stock them in case I need them. There's some vibration or noise from the back and I'm not yet sure if it's the exhaust or a bearing.

Any input on how to operate the rear wiper?

[stuart_hedges]

Any input on how to operate the rear wiper?

It just works that way, I'm afraid! The only way around it is to fit the switch from an estate instead - that has an intermittent mode which clicks into place, and a gentle push activates the washer.

My oil gauge also doesn't work properly; I'd like to replace it with a water temperature gauge as that would be much more useful than the factory "you've just killed your engine" light.